Overview

February 2025 Zelenskyy Trump Whitehouse Meeting refers to a meeting between United States President Donald Trump and J.D. Vance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The meeting was held to discuss terms of a proposed deal of exchanging Ukraine's rare earth minerals in exchange for possible continuing American aid to Ukraine during the ongoing war with Russia. The meeting quickly broke down, with President Trump and Vice President Vance engaging in a verbal altercation with President Zelenskyy and no agreement being reached.

Background

The Trump Administration had previously suggested to Ukraine that the United States be granted 50% ownership of the country’s rare earth minerals to reimburse previous aid given to Ukraine by the United States in a draft deal delivered by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ^[16] in Kyiv, as reported on February 12 2025. In opening remarks at a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Bessent said that “President Trump has a plan to end this war,” and that “we would like an economic cooperation agreement. In exchange for this agreement, the U.S. will continue to provide material support for the Ukraine.” However, officials from the United States also met Russian officials on February 18, 2025 in a meeting led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The meeting's stated goal was of improving their diplomatic and economic ties, as well as securing a peace deal for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. ^[17] A meeting which neither Ukrainian nor officials from other Europeans nations were invited.

The political pressure to secure a deal escalated on February 19, 2025 as Trump accused Zelenskyy of being a "dictator" and of the US having "spent" $350 billion on Ukraine, in a post on Truth Social which led to a tense social media exchange with Zelenskyy. In conjunction with other assertions made by Trump, the American President was accused of misrepresenting verifiable facts by Zelenskyy and in being "caught in a web of disinformation.” The United States's aid had been inflated and allocated $119 billion for aid to Ukraine, according to a research organization in Germany, the Kiel Institute, not $350 billion. In addition, Ukraine was currently martial law and per it's constitution had suspended elections.^[18][19]. When asked by reporters on February 27, 2025 whether he still believed Zelensky was a dictator, Trump walked back the claim and responded: “Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that. Next question.” ^[20]

The meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump occurred in a context of such rising tensions, and after the White House had hosted two other meetings with European leaders in the same week, Emmanuel Macron of France and Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom, both of whom already contradicted and fact-checked Trump on claims he made during their respective live meetings.

Full video of the Meeting

International Reactions

Trump's actions were condemned as an unprecedented breach in diplomatic norms, as officials from Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, as well as EU nations such as France, Belgium, Estonia, Germany and Sweden made statements of support for Zelenskyy & Ukraine. Other nations such as Hungary and Russia praised Trump for the meeting. ^[21]

Online Reactions

Fake Zelenskyy and US Democrats Call

Shortly following the meeting on February 28th, Twitter user @KeenanPeachy made tweet reading "Blinken, Rice, Nuland, and Vindman conference call with Zelenskyy on the flight to DC advising him to "stand strong" and "be tough" and "don't let Trump bully you" seems to have backfired".^[9] She made reply tweet roughly thirty minutes later clarifying that she was "speculating" while also asserting "but obviously I'm correct. Obama probably on too"^[10]. (shown below)

This story was shared around various right-wing Twitter accounts^[11][12] without attribution or source and eventually reached the attention of Trump's special envoy Richard Grendell ^[13](Shown Below)

Upon seeing the attention her tweet received, @KeenanPeachy made two tweets in response, the first reading: "It's called we start an international incident in one X post" and including a screenshot of Richard Grendell's tweet ^[14] and a second post reading: "Thank you for the shout out, Yasher. I don’t always start international incidents on X but when I do, I like to take credit for my work 😂" including screenshots of her post with text highligted.^[15]

Submemes

JD Vance's "have you said thanks once" & Zelenskyy's Thanking Spree

Vance's statement of “Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” faced push-back as Media sources made a list of the times Zelenskyy had thanked the United States for their aid ^[22], and following the meeting Zelensky's social media routinely thanked other leaders of nations which had supported Ukraine, an event that was reportedly considered humorous to internet users, such Ukrainian users of Twitter. ^[23]

Why don't you wear a suit?

Why don't you wear a suit? was a question asked by commentator Brian Glenn of Real America’s Voice.

Glenn asked Zelenskyy:“Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re in the highest level of this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit? I just want to see, do you own a suit? A lot of Americans have problems with you respecting this office.” To which Zelensky replied: “I will wear costume after this war will finish, Maybe something like yours, yes, maybe something better, I don’t know.” [Show Below]

This question sparked controversy with some considering the question trivial to focus on, while others viewed Zelenskyy's attire as disrespectful. This also spawned memes, with many mocking the question being asked.

Zelenskyy Fighting Trump A.I. Video

Zelenskyy Fighting Trump A.I. Videos are videos created by Artificial Intelligence to show Trump and Zelenskyy in the Whitehouse, with Zelenskky then shown to be fighting Trump. One video was posted by @The_Fauxy, posted to their Instagram and Twitter accounts of @The_Fauxy on February 28th, shortly after the meeting had concluded^[7][8]. The Twitter post gained nearly one million views, 3,000 retweets, and 15k likes within 24 hours^[7], with the Instagram post gaining nearly 3,000 likes withing 15 hours^[8].

🚨 #𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐙𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐤𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐬. pic.twitter.com/GHlmUmBRlF

— The Fauxy (@the_fauxy) February 28, 2025

Search Interest

External References